Friday, January 21, 2011

During his playing days, the 5-foot-8 Thomas Brown gained the unofficial status as being the pound-for-pound strongest player in Georgia football history.

So when the former Bulldog tailback expressed an interest last month in re-joining the program, it seemed natural to place him in the weight room. Georgia’s strength and conditioning staff was undergoing an overhaul, and the former Atlanta Falcon and Cleveland Brown was added as an assistant to new coordinator Joe Tereshinski.

“I want to see us get back on track,” Brown said Friday, when he met with a group of media members to discuss his new role. He’s been on the job a few weeks.

Being on the strength and conditioning staff was something that Brown said he “came around” to after his discussions with Richt. Being a former player, he said it was tough to watch the team struggle and wanted to do his part to help turn things around.

Brown said he didn’t want to compare Tereshinski and Dave Van Halanger, the latter of whom he described as a mentor. Van Halanger, who was the strength coordinator for the first 10 years of Richt's tenure, was shifted to an administrative role.

“I was a product of coach Van’s system, so obviously I don’t have anything negative to say about that,” Brown said. “We’re just getting back to preparing, getting ready to play football games, getting in better shape. I think the most important thing is getting guys buying into the system, believing in what we’re doing.”

Still, there was a reason Richt made the change. Brown agreed that there might have been some complacency in the weight room lately.

“That’s tough to say on the outside looking in,” he said. “I know personally one of my highest acclaims at Georgia was being known as pound-for-pound the strongest football players in program history. I broke the running back bench record, squat record and power lift record under coach Van. So he knows what he’s doing. He’s regarded as one of the greatest college strength coaches in history.

“But I think maybe the move had to do with guys getting too comfortable with him, and needed a change. And they weren’t responding to him as well as they needed to be.”

Some players, such as kicker Blair Walsh, have hinted that the team might have had a sense of entitlement, which contributed to its struggles. From afar, Brown agreed with that.

“I think you can solve most problems with more competition,” he said. “I think that’s one of the biggest things that’s different from when I was here as a player (to) what’s here now. I came in as a highly-recruited, No. 1 running back in the state of Georgia, No. 2 or three in the nation, and came in I was No. 7 on the depth chart of eight running backs. And I had to compete.

“I think that kind of makes guys raise their level of expectations. I think it’s harder for guys to be motivated when they kind of know they’re guaranteed to play.”

49 comments:

Good Stuff. I've alway liked Brown. It takes alot of hard work in the weight room to do what he did. It's not all natural. What's the word on our OL coach? And will this person also be the running game coordinator?

I hope that was a joke... Bench Murray? Mason transfer? Lemay knows the deal and will complete for the job. He will redshirt giving him two years as a starter. The only way Mason sees the field is through injury next year. Plain & simple.

There is a difference in being "entitled" and being the only guy qualified. Murray is the last person on the team with an entitlement problem. Wasn't he the hardest working guy on the team according to the coaches last year.

I believe the entitlement issues lie with the OL, DL, and RB positions. Everyone else had competition at their respective position.

Yeah... I won't lay the 1-4 start on Murray. I will lay the Florida and UCF game on him, though. If you bench someone for performance issues you better have someone who is just as good or better than him to come in. I don't get the feeling Mason was ready to take the reigns last year. Murray has room to improve, especially in the 4th quarter crunchtime, but he was our best option this year and will probably continue to be our best option for the next 3 years.

Murray touched the ball more than any offensive player, by a mile. So he's the most responsible. Murray played above average against the below average teams, and below average against the above average teams. Make all the excuses you want, but if your QB can't beat a single team with a winning record, he's not a clutch QB. Georgia doesn't need a QB who excels against La Lafayette and Idaho State, need a guy who doesn't make 4 to's against Florida and can beat Auburn, SC, Miss St, Col, UCF, and Ark.

Wow. Never thought I would happen to come across the one Georgia fan in the world who has a vendetta against Aaron Murray, but I think we found him folks!

If Murray had been benched after a horrible first half against UF, do you think we would have come anywhere close to tying the game and going to OT? He came back in and looked excellent in the 2nd half and almost got us the win.

I have no idea what this guy's problem is with Murray. Mettenberger, is that you?

I covered Steve Spurrier and his QB chicanery for four years. If the Head Ball Coach had a slower hook with guys like Blake Mitchell and Chris Smelley, they might have been in Atlanta before this year. And his hook of Garcia at Auburn this year may have cost them that game.

I won't step into the pro- or anti-Murray argument - which seems a bit inane to me anyway. But Spurrier ... bad example. Trust me.

Seth, since you mentioned Spurrier, I've been meaning to ask you something since you took over for Hale.

Do you have any really good stories about Spurrier? I know from experience that sometimes funny stuff happens in the media conferences with coaches. Richt is Mr. Cool so he isn't too exciting, but I have to assume Spurrier did/said some weird or crazy things while you were there.

That would require a very long blog post, one I don't have time to post right now, or a few beers' worth of time. But suffice to say there are plenty of stories, and hopefully sometime I can get a chance to share some.

Spurrier holds his QB's accountable, if they stink up the joint like going 1-4 as a starter, or 4 to's against Florida, or 3 TO's against UCF, I don't think Spurrier would allow that. If you're a QB playing for Spurrier, you know you better perform, there's no entitlement mentality like there has been the last 2 years at QB at Georgia. Richt continued to let Cox start despite Joe Cox's interception problems and continued to let Murray play in games like Florida or UCF, where Murray didn't earn it, and it cost Richt the season. I do think Georgia owuld have gone 9-3 with either Mason or Logan Gray.

The Florida game, UCF game, and Colorado game, were all winnable, those teams were not better than Georgia, would have all been W's if Mason or Gray had been the QB all year. Mason probably could have stretched the field on the deep ball better than Murray in the SC & Miss St games to get 8 out of the box. And Mason or Gray would have won the same 6 that Murray won, not a real good team in any of those 6 wins anyway.

So, 9-4, easy, without Murray, 6-7 with him.

I just hope the entitlement culture I've witnessed at QB for 2 seasons changes, if it doesn't, Richt won.

Look at last 2 seasons, no other quality coach in the SEC would have stuck with Cox and Murray.

Spurrier won the SEC East, so right now, what he's doing is working, and what Richt's doing isn't working.

The only people big on Murray, are those caught up with his td's, but they probably havn't broken down what kind of competition those td's came from. If so, they'd see that only a small percentage of Murray's td's were against teams with winning records. I'm not impressed by his td's against the likes of La Lafayette, not sure why anyone else is.

All in his FIRST YEAR as a starter in the SEC, the toughest conference in America. (oh, and the TDs do not include his 5 rushing TDs.)

Yes, you can pick nits that the completion percentage could be higher, but I guarantee you any coach in the nation would take that kind of production from their QB.

The bottom line is that YOU ARE WRONG: ask any football expert, and they're going to say that Murray wasn't the problem, and to try to claim differently just makes you look like an idiot who doesn't understand football.

Murray had 3 TDs against Florida, and Auburn, 1 against Arkansas and Mississippi State, and only pulled the bagel on South Carolina.

So against the 5 winning teams we played, he put up 8 touchdowns.

Huh. That's not quite as bad as you were trying to make it out to be, isn't it? Or were you expecting Murray to put up at least 2-3 touchdowns against superior teams (and again showing you have no clue about football)?

Don't feed the troll. Anyone that has a clue knows Murray is a stud. Someone that's unreasonable enough to put the record on Murray, you're not going to be able to convince them. At that point, they're either trolling or just so stupid they couldn't handle any amount of conversation with an open mind.

Many highly regarded experts in the field have praised Murray for his play, don't get caught up in a forum troll.

I bet Murray the midget has a terrible year next year. Like ole Kyle Parker over at Clemson did. All you heard was Kyle Parker this and that and guess what happened. Kyle Parker is a real Stud. Murray? I'm not so sure yet after we have NOBODY to throw to now.

How do you know Richt didn't base it on "what they did in competition"? I must've missed the hiring of Anon 7:10 as QB coach this past off-season. So you're counting the spring game as the competition and all the practices before that as "the edited video highlight reel"? Yeah, that makes sense...

Also, it's pretty hard to be a QB with a 10-2 record when you're not smart enough to stay out of trouble.

Lack of depth, experience, and competition at QB hurt Georgia in 2010.

There won't be a lack of cometition at QB in 2011. Hutson Mason was ready to go last season, so Richt moved Gray to WR. Mason will REALLY be ready this season and if Murray falters or slacks off, or slips up, Mason gonna get the starting job. Lemay will bring Murray more competition than he has ever seen in his life. Let's duke it out in the 3 Spring games, and may the best QB win the contest.

Good to see that another former player knows UGA is in deep trouble. Glad Thomas Brown can help. We need more former players like him and Fran to recognize the crap that has been going on for the last 5 years to try to get something done. Go Dawgs !

"Murray touched the ball more than any offensive player, by a mile. So he's the most responsible."

"He came back in and looked excellent in the 2nd half and almost got us the win."

I like to comment on these 2 posts above.

There is a lot more to Aaron Murray than just being a ball hog, and he is a ball hog. He led the team with 9 fumbles this season, and contributed key interceptions to derail the season, a total of 9 interceptions as well. He played 8 teams who finished the season not in the Top 25. He lost to 2 of them. Those 2 losses derailed the season. Colorado which he lost with AJ Green and Florida he lost with AJ Green too. Aaron Murray stole 87 rushes from his teammates at running back this season, averaging 1.9 yards a carry. He was # 62 in the nation at being sacked. # 72 at getting 1st Downs even. # 55 at 3rd Down Conversions. # 56 at Total Offense for Georgia this season. Dismal is how this Offense played this season. We beat no one. We played 13 games while the top teams again played 14. We didn’t get to The SEC Championship for the 5th Consecutive Season in a Division of The SEC which sucked.

Aaron Murray did not beat Florida; he Lost. The reason for the Loss was Aaron Murray’s alone.

Aaron Murray did not beat Colorado; he Lost. The reason for the Loss was Aaron Murray’s alone.

Aaron Murray did not beat Central Florida; he Lost. The reason for this Loss, too, was Aaron Murray’s alone.

He threw fuel on the fire of not having a running game, taking 7 carries a game away from his running backs. He averaged 1.9 yards on these 7 carries a game, all season long. They instead averaged 5 yards a carry. They would have had 35 yards; he got us 14. Actually, less than 14.

In crucial situations, he looked like he didn’t know what he was doing.

Wearing gloves in 72 degree day game against Central Florida. That was the last game for us, by the way – while you sit there with your EXCUSE MACHINE searching for an EXCUSE.

7 more carries he stole from RB in Loss to Colorado for 12 yards total

7 carries vs the vols

6 carries vs Vandie for God’s sake

3 carries for 7 yards total vs Kentucky

8 carries for 16 total yards in Loss to Florida not Top 25 like Colorado wasn’t

3 carries for minus 4 yards against Idaho State

6 carries for minus 4 yards in Loss to Auburn

4 carries for minus 10 yards vs Georgia tek

12 carries for 4 yards total in Loss to Central Florida

There is no excuse for that. He would tuck the football and take off running like he at 4.7 was going to outrun even the average speed defender. He did not. He is not capable of that at 5’ 11” and 198 lbs. at 4.7.

David Greene was great here at UGA because he Won games as Starting QB. He was NOT a 1-man band. He gave the ball off to his running backs. He got the ball out to his receivers. We won games, as a result. Aaron Murray is 6-7 by the same EXACT measure which made David Greene great here.

429 plays 33 plays a game, Aaron Murray CALLED HIS OWN NUMBER. He either checked out of the play called to calling his own number, or called his own number from the sidelines, stuck with calling his own number.

20 percent of the running plays this 2010 season, little Aaron Murray called his own number. 20 percent. 87 of 455 running plays 2010 by UGA are Aaron Murray being a ball hog.

1.9 yards a carry is what he has to show for it.

And, Nine (9) Fumbles.

MORE THAN HALF the total plays by UGA this 2010 season, are Aaron Murray calling his OWN NUMBER.

Ball hog.

LOSING Ball hog.

6-7 as Starting Quarterback and damn sure responsible for the 7 Losses where all Seven (7) Games the Opposing Quarterback was better than he head-to-head.

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About the Author

Seth Emerson has been covering the SEC and Georgia (on and off) since 2002. He worked at the Albany Herald from 2002-05, then spent five years at The State in Columbia, S.C., covering South Carolina. He returned to Athens in August of 2010, only to find that David Pollack and David Greene were no longer playing for the Bulldogs. Adjustments were made.

Emerson is originally from Silver Spring, Md., and graduated from Maryland in 1998 with a degree in journalism and a minor in getting lost on the way to practically everywhere. Then he spent four years at The Washington Post, covering small colleges, a couple NCAA basketball tournaments, and on one glorious day, was yelled at by Tony Kornheiser. It was probably at The Post that he also learned to write in the third person.

These days he lives in Athens with his beloved and somewhat wimpy dog, Archie. Together they fight crime at night in northeast Georgia, except on nights there is no crime, in which case they sit at home, sip on white wine and watch reruns of "Mad Men."